EAST LANSING -- Michigan State vaulted itself into the top 10 in college football's national rankings three weeks ago, and now for the first time since 2010, the Spartans are no longer ranked.

But no, coach Mark Dantonio said Tuesday, his team is not panicking after losses to Notre Dame and Ohio State.

"I guess in this time of coaching, as an assistant, head coach, defensive coordinator, I learned one thing: you're never quite as good as you think you are or people think you are, and you're never quite as bad as people think you are, either," Dantonio said. "You're somewhere always floating in there one way or the other.

"If we approach things with our head down and everything, things are probably going to stay the same. If we get up, if we rise up a little bit, we get a little bit irritated where we're at, we want to make a statement, then that will happen. I would expect our football team will make a statement when we come to play. That's how we've done things here. I don't think we're in panic mode."

As Michigan State prepares for its first Big Ten road game against Indiana on Saturday, Dantonio and his players have reiterated they still control their own destiny with winning the Legends Division to get a chance to reach the Rose Bowl.

Despite an offense that is struggling at offensive line and wide receiver, quarterback Andrew Maxwell said the unit was doing well with its attitude, energy and intensity.

"Panicking
is one of the worst things you could do right now," linebacker Chris Norman said. "Things can get real messy.
If you think about it, all of our goals are still intact. There really is no
need to panic. We've got the guys to fix
the things we need to fix. Panicking is not our list right now."

Dantonio said earlier in the season he hoped his players would not buy into the media's hype of the team, and now he hopes they ignore the backlash in articles following two losses.

"If you lost two, you're 3 2, even if you lost by one point, they're going to be, 'The sky is falling,'" Dantonio said. "Neither of the two are true. We'll just push through it. We've done that before here. Sometimes tough times require tough people."